


Guilty Heart

by silvernote17



Category: RWBY
Genre: Didn't Ship It But Now I DOOOOOOOO, F/M, One Shot, Rambling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 11:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16554626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvernote17/pseuds/silvernote17
Summary: Oscar betrays his uneasy balance with Ozpin to give Ruby a chance at finding the answers she needs to keep Remnant safe, even if it means losing the last bit of freedom he had to court the silver-eyed huntress.(ONE-SHOT)





	Guilty Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely based on S.6, Ep.2
> 
> I needed a break from my other fic and the idea of Ozpin begging was just too striking to pass on. None of this does anything for me but waste my time (and your time).
> 
> I've groaned over how useless and annoying I find Oscar since we first met him, to the point where he is my favorite character to dislike for no other reason than I just don't like him. This last episode was a game-changer. I didn't ship RubyxOscar until now and here I am, thinking face on, wondering, "Huh, how would that all turn out? Even without Ozpin being all Ozpin-ish and getting all up in the middle of that?"
> 
> The fact I have over 160k words sunk so far into a fic with a crack-ship pairing no one asked for is a good sign I don't give much of a damn to canon so, if you enjoy unedited ramblings written haphazardly on-and-off over two afternoons, is this a deal for you.

“ENOUGH!”

 

\--

He came to them a farmboy, rural living written undeniably into his calloused hands and sun-brown skin. Oscar first swung the ebony cane, that elegant weapon with a formidable gleam, with all the grace of hoeing a clayed-earth garden; Nora’s peeling laugh rose his shoulders in defensive embarrassment and Ozpin felt the boy come close to frustrated tears. Oscar couldn’t tell if he wished nothing more than to never have met this hackneyed crew of castoffs and misfits or if Ozpin, the stranger coiled in his head, felt this way. Likely both, at any one rare but occasional time, each for their own reasons.

For Oscar, his guilt of dreading training didn’t just stem from the too-wide strikes and too-late blocks when facing the others. That gritty gnaw at the pit of his stomach when he shuffled to join the others in their early morning exercises never ceased but did ease slightly when he improved enough to keep his feet under him rather than end up flat on the ground again. And again. And again. Sometimes he’d get a knowing nod from Ren and Ruby always offered a hand back up but it did nothing to ease the annoyance. Qrow took time to knock each one of them down every now and then, a dare should they believe they were anything but lucky when it came to their field experience thus far, but each of the Beacon students were still leagues ahead of Oscar.

A shallow cut here or a heavy bruise there were all part of the experience when it came to weapons training, a juvenile pride at their dinner table when the intermeshed Teams RWBY and RNGR replayed their day together before devolving into some story of their time at Beacon or a funny snippet of someone’s childhood. Oscar would sit quietly, sometimes at Qrow’s side, sometimes off by himself, and listen as the joviality occasionally transitioned to somber contemplation of where life had become extraordinarily difficult lately and not only because of the darkness edging in around them. Of all their personal failures and shortcomings the teams shared openly with each other, the grittier truth of just how truly inadequate they may be when set against the world was nothing compared to Oscar’s own ineptitude, both physically and emotionally. Ozpin reminded him of this unintentionally and often.

When the former headmaster held control, he deliberately compartmentalized the students away, treating them politely but with distance. These were no longer talented students in the care of the best instructors on Remnant but youthful exuberance gone to waste through an under-allowance of practice and an overabundance of idealism. He could feel Oscar’s frustration in fighting to catch up to hunters and huntresses with formal training he never wanted to begin with but if only he could convince the boy that there wasn’t so much distance between them all as Oscar thought. The timidity Oscar expressed whenever more than two others were in a room with him was a rare, sour taste after lifetimes of the sorcerer knowing exactly where he stood in the rotation of the world.

Oscar couldn’t sense much of Ozpin at first unless Oz intended it, allowing the boy some semblance of privacy as they adapted to one another. For all his power, wielding his control over their body was less than satisfying without Oscar’s consent, the soul trapped next to his practically screaming in panic and anger; it proved to be exceedingly distracting and so they came to an easy truce. Oscar would allow Ozpin complete permission without fight at any time in return for the few but firm exceptions when Oscar insisted on Ozpin turning away from his consciousness. Quickly, Ozpin realized why Oscar wasn’t going to ask for any more than he already had and why his request was so vital, and the former headmaster agreed to the terms without question.

Ren had attempted to befriend the boy in his own silent way but Oscar was so entirely overwhelmed by Nora that there were few chances to reciprocate the much-needed connection with someone who held even remote similarities to himself. As Nora Valkyrie attached herself to Ren some dozen odd years ago as a particularly stubborn vine would wrap around a sturdy tree, Oscar had yet to find a moment with Ren in anything more than passing. Jaune, the other young man and only other vaguely familiar option for what Oscar remembered of casual friendship with neighboring farmer’s sons, was a tumultuous personality. Laughing with the others, usually trying to catch the eye of the Schnee heiress, Jaune’s excuse to Oscar’s face was that he wasn’t used to having so many brothers around.

“I grew up with all sisters,” Jaune shared after Oscar’s last failed attempt to establish an easier rapport, “Don’t take it personal.”

 Oscar knew Jaune felt no more brotherly feelings toward him than to a nest of spiders.

 _He blames me,_ Ozpin shared once after Oscar’s hurt at Jaune’s cold shoulder was too sharp for Ozpin to ignore without some sense of pity.

“What did you do?”

He asked and waited, as was usual when he spoke with Ozpin in the first few weeks of their conjoining, and watched the sun set over the quiet little town that, for now, hid them and let them rest.

 _There was a young woman,_ the former headmaster said some time later with a twinge of melancholy; although it complimented Jaune’s open sadness whenever someone mentioned Team JNPR, was a sad lack in comparison to the crushingly painful burden the blond boy bore. _She was beautiful, kind, courageous. I thought she was ready… what a waste to lose as fine huntress as she._

“What- what happened to her?”

The unsteady pause as Oscar wondered if he actually wanted to know was all Ozpin needed to end the conversation with a particular tone warning to not ask again.

_I failed._

And so Oscar paid for another of Ozpin’s decisions and stopped trying to catch Jaune’s attention with a hopeful smile that here was someone who also knew what it was like to hover around the edges of something a little more valid than a lie but less satisfying than if his place in this group felt truly earned.

After he asked Ozpin what happened to the girl Jaune bore as a torch, a faint memory that wasn’t his flitted through his mind consecutive nights until the sorcerer locked it away tight once more. Undeniably Ozpin wrapping tighter into his mind without intent, the evidence the being in his body was once mortal and remembered sleep the way Oscar needed it, Ozpin couldn’t hide everything from Oscar as he wished to. A tortured scream of a girl echoed so vividly in his dreams that they sat up gasping in horror. It was one of the few things they did together with twinned unwillingness. Emeralds sparkling in her fiery long hair, the lost huntress gleamed in Ozpin’s memory with as much pride as the shine of a trophy but the swirl of her red hipscarf as she danced through battle wrapped her in blood and pulled her away from them as they lay back down in bed and banished her over and over again. Oscar knew this wasn’t the most tragic circumstance Ozpin had a role in but the admiration the former headmaster held for her capability to become a truly skilled huntress left no doubt to Oscar why her classmates mourned her.

The lean, golden-clad form that flitted through the occasional bad dream was of little distraction to Oscar himself but what caught Oscar’s eye during their waking hours caused Ozpin pause when the former headmaster considered convincing the boy to alter their agreement. That the young man could have the shoddy excuse of privacy when he shared so much with someone who could enter his thoughts and experience his physical reactions was a concession Ozpin didn’t mind making in a houseful of the fairer sex while wrestling the boorish inhibitions of a teenager’s body.

Yang and Blake, their leather-bound hips and ample curves more than the occasional distraction in the early days of training, somewhat terrified Oscar. They were women, hardly past girlhood but women nonetheless, and he was even more ashamed when Qrow would shoot him a look that made him feel like even more of a boy. It was the look when Yang told a bawdy story about a visit to a popular Vale nightclub during her time at Beacon, and the look when Blake would slip a borrowed romance behind her tucked knees as she curled in a chair, and the look every time Nora mistakenly believed she could make the dash unnoticed from her bedroom to the communal bathroom without her towel. It was the look reminding Oscar that Qrow was a hunter who earned every grey hair on his head and every notch in his belt. It reminded Oscar of the nights he spent thinking of what he did or didn’t find attractive about the few women he knew, the far older and very married women occasionally came to visit his aunt or their average, plain daughters as he passed them running errands in the small town nearby. It reminded him he was still uncertain in his preferences, still too young to know what it was he could possibly want in a partner, and far too inexperienced to even consider anything more than an ashamed blush when Yang pinned him yet again in practice.

“This is too easy,” she laughed at the end of their fifth round together, winking at Blake and Nora nearby as they watched Qrow guide Jaune through a series of defensive maneuvers. It was when Oscar’s body was still sore from the unusual motions combat required, the repetitive movements aching him but far more welcome than the reactions he fought as Yang’s blonde hair swept his skin and her knees trapped him tight below her. It was the third time she won through sheer distraction, Oscar losing coordination as she played with him rather than trained as Qrow instructed her to do. Even through his embarrassment and ire at being toyed with, he didn’t think Yang was being purposefully cruel as much as unkind and lazy. She knew what worked on her typical opponents and some of them, like Oscar quickly realized about himself, were easily taken down by a crooked smile and cocked hip.

In one of the few times Oscar was ever grateful for Ozpin’s control, the former headmaster warned Yang only with the flashing of his eyes before placing the young huntress through a vigorous and unforgiving sequence of every block and strike she was supposed to be teaching Oscar. The vague raised eyebrow thrown her way when Yang dared look to Qrow for intervention was all she needed to know that she deserved whatever Ozpin decided was to come her way and she hadn’t been nearly as rude to Oscar or ambivalent to training since. Oscar’s frame may be that a of a boy but he shared the space with a powerful and complex immortal who was some combination of failed mentor and yet persistent authority figure for nearly everyone in the household. It was as much of a challenge for others as it was for him, at times, and some of his team still didn’t quite know how to react.

Weiss had very little to say to Oscar and Ozpin both, speaking only slightly more freely when Oscar was himself than when Ozpin commandeered the energy in the room. Oscar appreciated that the young woman held them all back by the tip of a very long, very sharp sword. Whereas Yang was fire and belly and leather, Weiss was a safe mix of ice and modesty that, although he had yet to win against the Schnee heiress, he had yet to find excuses to leave immediately following their battles. Jaune, for his dislike of Ozpin and subsequent dislike of Oscar, was still willing to give up an opportunity to take on his schoolyard crush in order for Oscar to focus on particularly rough days. Weiss was cordial but distant, exceedingly similar to Ozpin himself in few but immediately noted ways, and Oscar could tell in the grit of her teeth that she disliked being saddled with both the young fool and the experienced sage in one and the same. She didn’t like knowing Ozpin was judging her every strike even as Oscar couldn’t block it properly, didn’t like the aged criticism coming from a younger voice, and was still extremely unsettled when Ozpin took from and conceded control to Oscar multiple times within the same match.

It wasn’t a long white ponytail that distracted Oscar in nearly every spare moment of thought, though. It wasn’t the powdery grit of Dust in the air or the glint of inherited craftsmanship forcing his forfeit. Dark hair and silver eyes were all he could see whenever she walked into the room...

\--

 

“Ruby-“

 

\--

A distraction over breakfast, forgetting how to place his fork in his mouth as Ruby giggled and stole his attention from her long eyelashes to her pink lips.

Another distraction, tripping over his own feet as he was supposed to run through the obstacle course Qrow and Yang set for them in the yard, Ruby’s willowy frame passing him in such close proximity as she raced him that he couldn’t remember a time when roses smelled so sweet.

Yet another distraction in her voice as she said his name, undivided attention on her willowy legs as she peeled off her long stockings in the hallway on her way to shower after training, complete interest in whatever story shared around the table as long as she was the one telling it.

_Oscar-_

Ozpin felt the boy groan, slap his head to his hands, wish for far from the first time that he was alone in his thoughts.

“Don’t say anything.”

_I find it hard not to, given you’ve taken the few resources you truly need to succeed in your training and placed them in complete investment of … not your training._

“I can’t help it,” Oscar whined, allowing himself the immature response of flinging himself down upon the couch in a rare moment of solitude in the communal spaces of the house.

 _The pangs of youth can be overestimated as far more than what they actually are_ , was the clinical response, nothing but acknowledgement in Ozpin’s tone. _This will pass._

“I don’t want it to,” Oscar replied quietly, fearing the reply.

_Miss Rose is a student of mine, Oscar, as are you. You may have forgotten, in those moments when you cannot see beyond your infatuation, that you are not a typical young man. Can you see the predicament?_

“So? Disappear for awhile, do whatever you do when you leave me alone. Ignore me so I can figure out what to do about how I feel about her.”

_Wartime is not opportune for fledgling romance._

“She probably doesn’t feel the same way, anyway,” Oscar conceded, sprawling back with his eyes closed in the worn but comfortable living room, wishing he knew what it would be like for Ruby to smile back at him with the same hopefulness he smiled at her with.

A clock ticked, the backyard fountain trickled, and the sounds of the house soothed Oscar as he rested. He could hear Ren and Nora talking in Nora’s room, their muffled conversation a pleasant distraction until Oscar realized they were likely curled together. Then thoughts of Ruby on that very couch alongside him in the same way tossed him into such a blend of desire and anxiety that he very nearly forgot how quiet Ozpin had been and for far longer than he usually was.

“She doesn’t feel the same,” Oscar repeated firmly, convincing himself doing anything else but listening to young lovers chat their afternoon away nearby was a healthier option than hiding out in the living room like a sneak.

 _Deciding what is best for other people is typically in poor form_ , Ozpin countered somewhat impatiently. _Would you focus a little more knowing your interest is truly not reciprocal or do you insist on allowing your biology to distract from the very real need to stay alive in a fight without my assistance?_

“You said it yourself,” Oscar shrugged, giving up on regaining the peaceful minutes of solitude that ticked by without him, “She knows you’re you and I’m you and you’re me… it’s too complicated. I’ll never have a relationship of any sort now that you’re not part of. I never planned on being a hermit but it won’t be a bad life, I suppose.”

“You’re creepy when you talk aloud like that,” Yang said, banging through the kitchen and into the living room as Oscar nearly flung himself across the room in surprise and horror. The blonde continued her way through the living room and down the hallway to her shared room without another word, carrying bags of shopping to restock the various necessities of young huntresses. As Oscar determined to get out of the house and work on his stamina with a series of laps around the property, Ozpin’s reply went unacknowledged.

_We shall see._

\--

 

“-please…”

 

\--

“Please don’t embarrass me,” Oscar groaned as he felt the former headmaster insist on control during an afternoon combat session against Weiss and Ruby, too many graceful dancer’s pirouettes and not enough efficient form from the heiress catching Ozpin’s eye as he coached Oscar through yet more hand-to-hand with Ren.

The young man, in the space of a breath, retreated and the immortal hunter came forefront in the strides across the practice room to catch Crescent Rose with the ebony cane as the scythe swept at Weiss.

“Now, now, Miss Schnee, we’ll have no more near misses for want of unnecessary energy expended on the battlefield,” Ozpin said. “Watch closely. Miss Rose, on three, attempt to disarm me.”

All eyes in the room flicked to Qrow, waiting for the permission the grizzled man would normally balance against the risk of the exercise. This wasn’t a matter of Nora wanting to test out improvements to her hammer inside the house (firmly denied) or Blake checking her Semblance strength against multiple opponents, or Yang practicing without her prosthetic arm. This was Ozpin: Qrow had no permission to give when the sorcerer was involved.

“One.”

In a surge of excitement, all eyes turned back to Oscar’s lean form poised with a straight back and tilted chin, no doubt that Ozpin was in complete control and about to give them all a worthwhile demonstration of Ruby’s considerable skill with Crescent Rose. Against a short stick, it appeared their teammate had the advantage for at least long enough to follow through with the challenge, even if it meant suffering at Ozpin’s experience to get there.

“Two.”

What Qrow knew that the spectators didn’t was where he had gotten the help building Harbinger, the weapon that heavily influenced Ruby’s own. She was at no advantage - Ozpin knew the strengths and limitations of the Crescent Rose. The others may be slightly blinded by the fact this was Oscar’s body, normally housing a meek and naive youth, but they had never seen Ozpin truly expend himself in combat, partly because Ozpin rarely had to.

“Three.”

Ruby sidestepped before a test swing, waiting for Ozpin to move from his stance and receiving no bite to her bait. Sidestepping again, she edged closer and dared the easy move by attempting to hook the cane with the crooked edge of her weapon. Ozpin simply lifted the cane and negated the effectiveness of that strategy.

Through a series of ducks and dodges, Ruby was held back without Ozpin so much shifting his weight from one planted foot to the other, the young woman running through each end every maneuver she could think of to disarm him. It was apparent she was running out of ideas and Ozpin’s crooked smile annoyed her. Rather than swinging too wide or stretching too high, Ruby hunkered into her center of gravity and tightened her movements. Even her impressive display of what came of training taken seriously wasn’t enough to cause Ozpin to so much as flinch.

The intent was well noted and Weiss crossed her arms in a demonstration that the point specifically to her fighting form was understood but the mood had already shifted. What was supposed to be a lesson in technique became an example of stubbornness. Ruby refused to give up on as simple a task as it was supposed to be: disarm. Ozpin refused to allow her to win. A sheen of sweat built on Ruby’s skin and she moved as fast as she ever had in a fight, her own team raising their eyebrows in surprise. Infuriatingly enough, Ozpin’s smile twisted to a smirk and the dusty old crow nearby stood poised to interfere should the former headmaster even flinch toward Ruby. It was his niece, however, he should have kept a closer eye on.

Qrow saw it in her eyes before anyone else that Ruby was about to do something very, very risky.

The girl steeled herself for less than a second, only enough time to gather Crescent Rose to her before exploding at Ozpin in a whirl of rose petals. He stepped aside but not nearly quickly enough, Ruby catching him by no more than fingertips at the edge of his sleeve, whirling him to what was intended to be the far edge of the room with the cane clutched triumphantly in her hand. What happened instead was Ozpin setting her off balance in his hard reaction to pull away, causing them to launch through a wall, skim the dirt courtyard, and tumble over the edge of the steep hill into the trees below.

Through the billowing dust, the teams ran to the precipice, Qrow knocking Yang aside with a firm order to stay at the house as Ruby’s sister started to climb her way down over the edge. He launched himself into the air in a flurry of black feathers and set to find Ruby and Ozpin.

\--

 

“Don’t.”

 

\--

It was the first time he ever used her first name, that much she knew.

The way he said it, softly, pleadingly, was the disarming thing.

On hands and knees, crumpled and defeated in the snow while the others looked on, it was the first time Ozpin had begged in hundreds of years. The first time he had prostrated himself before a woman was to seek forgiveness for his failures. That woman became one of the worst evils on Remnant and took his head for his troubles. Since then, he had never dreamed of baring his neck, had never imagined he would tighten his eyes against the blinding brightness of the snow and shield himself from seeing the disappointment in the face of the only one who could protect him. A shy young huntress, ridiculous in her tattered stockings and cape, trying to determine how much of Oscar Ozpin now locked away forever.

Ruby shrank away as she watched the struggle between the boy and the man within the body crumpled in front of her. Last time Oscar and Oz fought, she was under them, tumbling in a blur through the woods behind the house in that tiny town now far away. It was summer then and the pine needles were warm as they cushioned their roll, rose petals blurring their vision. Oscar appeared before her, releasing her immediately, backing away in embarrassment at being in such close proximity to Ruby as the girl shook the foliage from her hair and clutched the hard-won cane tightly to her. Her respite from their battle was short lived as Ozpin shot across the forest floor, flipping her with a series of strikes laid so quickly that the cane was wrenched out of her grip before she realized she was looking up at the sky, wind knocked out of her

“That was foolish, Ms. Rose,” Ozpin chastised, straightening his collar and glancing down at her with a raised eyebrow. "The point of the lesson was not for you to actually follow through with it."

“You- didn’t expect- me not- to try,” Ruby gasped in return, groaning at the stick lodged under her back and noting the sharp throb of her cheek where Ozpin had struck her to regain his cane.

“I should have known,” was the humored reply, a hint of an edge to his voice as he struggled to maintain his annoyance. Oscar was shouting for control, fighting him, angry at the very idea of Ruby hurt because of something his own hands had done.

 _You hit a student, one of your own!_ Oscar yelled, disgusted. Ozpin ignored the boy as he noticed Qrow scanning overhead, looking for them. Qrow was one of the few who knew there were no limits when it came to what Ozpin would do to prevent someone from accomplishing a task he didn’t want completed. There were few boundaries Ozpin would hesitate to cross and, even through the hesitation, would cross them anyway. He was a poor judge of himself but manipulated as easily as breathing and so compounded the guilt and self-loathing Oscar felt struggle within the shared heart, fighting every beat as though daring the body to continue without both souls until one was ready to give everything to the other.

As Ruby got to her feet, Oscar reached out a hand, the former headmaster relinquishing for a moment to let the boy extend the chivalry Ozpin himself prided. Silver eyes met hazel and, before he lost his nerve, Oscar leaned to tap his lips against Ruby’s cheek. It was all he could think to do, something simple and easy to step away from should she not wish for him to be so near, as much of an apology for the experience as he could come up with, but Ruby sought his eyes again to check who was in control. The warm swirl of seasons gazing back confirmed it was Oscar and only Oscar; she smiled as she pecked his lips quickly before stepping away, hands clasped sweetly as she turned from him with a spin of a booted foot.

“Why did you do that?” Oscar asked, stumbling after her as she led their way back up the hill through the path of wreckage left in their descent.

“Wanted to see what it was like,” she said casually, never turning back to look at him. They traveled in silence until Oscar could no longer keep his curiosity to himself.

“Well…?”

“It was alright.”

“Would you like to try again sometime?”

“Maybe,” Ruby hesitated, weighing the consideration.

The lilt to Oscar’s mood was swept aside as Ozpin reached out to grab Ruby’s arm, the girl twisting to look at the hand gripping her sleeve and narrowing her eyes when she saw Oscar wasn’t there but the invitation was.

“Don’t.”

Her warning was all Ozpin needed to release her, bowing his head ever so slightly in apology before taking the lead on the way back up the hill.

"I can help him or ignore him to muddle through this little crush on his own, Miss. Rose, depending on what you wish," the sorcerer intoned, footsteps crushing the rose petals and pine needles on their way back to the house, "but do remember that I will never entirely disappear."

After a few moments of disbelief, Ruby followed, Qrow swirling overhead to watch their progress and ensure no dallying. She wondered the whole way back if she had realized until this point, after all the nights thinking about how the handsome young farmhand was just down the hallway from her, that he wasn’t just a boy named Oscar.

Now, as the man bowed before her and everyone else reached tentatively for their weapons, he begged. He begged her in Oscar’s voice, used Oscar’s body, but Ruby knew the man was not truly a man. His secrets were dangerous, risked her life and the lives of her friends and family, and her heart constricted to think of what would come of her friendship and budding romance with Oscar after all he gave up to give her this warning. Ozpin would know Oscar could fight him, would know the deeper loyalty to her than to the sorcerer’s soul anchoring itself in his vulnerable body. There would be no further success, no other surprises, when it came to Oscar hiding secrets from Ozpin. Would she let Oscar’s sacrifice go to waste because she feared losing him to the former Headmaster of Beacon Academy?

As she turned to the mythical being hovering behind her, holding yet another possession of Ozpin’s he didn’t want her to have, Ruby set aside her guilty heart to ask her question, even as Oscar’s voice rang in her ears to fill her thoughts with Ozpin’s poison.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, RWBY is going to break my heart before all this is over, isn't it? I'm still not over S.3... Now I actually care about this silly little boy and his need to connect with our main heroine (who finally seems to be the lead in her own story again, thank you very much). 
> 
> Not even going to address the big reveal at the end of S.6, Ep.2... I hope it won't be what we think it might be... We only have a few more days until we know more but, in my head-canon, they're brother and sister. I won't accept anything different until I have to admit it just might be what it seems like it is. 
> 
> Now back to plodding away at other fic, as this is most definitely going to stay a one-shot.


End file.
